448 ZOOLOGY OF THE ISLANDS, [chap. xx. 



sea brings to these islands the seeds and fruits of many 

 trees, most of which have yet not grown here. The greater 

 part of these seeds appear to have not jet lost the capability 

 of growing." It is also said that palms and bamboos from 

 somewhere in the torrid zone, and trunks of northern firs, 

 are washed on shore : these firs must have come from an 

 immense distance. These facts are highly interesting. 

 It cannot be doubted that, if there were land-birds to pick 

 up the seeds when first cast on shore, and a soil better 

 adapted for their growth than the loose blocks of coral, 

 that the most isolated of the lagoon-islands would in time 

 possess a far more abundant Flora than they now have. 



The list of land animals is even poorer than that of the 

 plants. Some of the islets are inhabited by rats, which 

 were brought in a ship from the Mauritius, wrecked here. 

 These rats are considered by Mr. Waterhouse as identical 

 with the English kind, but they are smaller, and more 

 brightly coloured. There are no true land-birds ; for a 

 snipe and a rail {Rallus Phillippensis), though living 

 entirely in the dry herbage, belong to the order of Waders. 

 Birds of this order are said to occur on several of the 

 small low islands in the Pacific. At Ascension, where 

 there is no land-bird, a rail {Porphyrio simplex) was shot 

 near the summit of the mountain, and it was evidently 

 a solitary straggler. At Tristan d'Acunha, where, accord- 

 ing to Carmichael, there are only two land birds, there is 

 a coot. From these facts I believe that the waders, after 

 the innumerable web-footed species, are generally the first 

 colonists of small isolated islands. I may add, that when- 

 ever I noticed birds, not of oceanic species, very far out 

 at sea, they always belonged to this order ; and hence 

 they would naturally become the earliest colonists of any 

 remote point of land. 



Of reptiles I saw only one small lizard. Of insects I 

 took pains to collect every kind. Exclusive of spiders, 

 which were numerous, there were thirteen species.* Of 

 these, one only was a beetle. A small ant swarmed by 

 thousands under the loose dry blocks of coral, and was tlie 

 only true Insect which was abundant. Although the pro- 

 ductions of the land are thus scanty, if we look to the 



* The thirteen species belong: to the following: orders: — In the Co/eo/iera, a 

 minute Elater ; Orthoptera^ a Gryllus and a Blatta ; Hemiptera^ one species ; 

 Homoptera, two ; Neuroptera, a Chrysopa ; Hymenoptera, two ants ; Lepid- 

 optera nociuma, a Diopasa, and a Pterophorus (?) ; Diptera, two species. 



